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7 
° 2 CUTTINGS. 49 
fisen; as at these seasons there 1s no danger of injuring the tree by 
oceasioning an overflow of the ascending , Which sometimes 
takes place when the tree is wounded while the sap is in active 
motion. In most cases the layers are left on twelve months, and in 
many two years, before they are divided from the parent plant, in 
order that they may be sufficiently supplied with roots. In nur- 
series, the ground is generally prepared round each stool by dig- 
ging, and sometimes by manuring; and the gardener piques him- 
self on laying down the branches neatly, so as to form a radiated 
circle round the stool, with the ends rising all round about the same 
height. 
Chinese mode of layering —The Chinese method of layering, 
which consists in wounding a branch, and then surrounding the 
place with moist earth contained either in a flower-pot or a basket, 
is frequently adopted in the continental gardens; and it has the very 
great advantage of producing a young tree which will flower and 
fruit while yet of very small size. It is generally applied to camel- 
lias, orange-trees, and magnolias; but it will do equally well for 
almost any other tree or shrub. When a plant is to be layered in 
this manner, a ring of bark is first taken off, and then a flower-pot is 
procured, cpen on one side, so as to admit the branch; and some 
moss being put at the bottom of the flower-pot, it is filled up with 
earth, and a piece of wood is placed inside the pot before the open 
part to prevent the earth from falling out. It may be fastened in its 
place by wires hung over a branch, or supported by four little sticks, 
tied t pot with string. The earth should be very moist before 
it is i the pot, and if the season be dry, it may be re-moist- 
ened from time to time. When the layer i is supposed to have rooted, 
a cut or rather notch should be made in the branch below the pot, 
and afterwards it may be cut off, and the young plant transferred 
with its bali of earth entire, to another pot or the open ground. A 
simpler way of performing this operation is using a piece of lead 
instead of a flower-pet. A modification cf this plan was adopted 
by Baron Humboldt in South America. He provided himself with 
strips of pitched cloth, with which he bound moist earth round the 
branches of several of the rare and curious trees he met with, after 
first taking off a ring of bark; and when he returned to the same 
place some time after, he found rooted plants, which he brought ¢e 
Europe. 
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